ATI and NVIDIA bore a lot of various graphics card models in the mainstream segment, which represent low-cost modifications of the top-end graphics solutions. In this article we are going to take a closer look at all these variations, pay due attention to their overclocking potential and their ability to be modified into "fully-fledged" powerful solutions. Also we will run the whole bunch of tests in contemporary games, so that you could see which solution of this overwhelming majority would be your best choice.

Deus Ex 2: Invisible War

Deus Ex 2 is based on a modified Unreal Tournament engine using pixel and vertex DierctX8 shaders. The modifications introduce such spirits of the times as dynamically calculated shadows and full-screen effects of image post-processing. When these effects are enabled (Bloom filter) the game doesn’t support FSAA, but the filter smoothens the entire scene in general and the polygon borders in particular.

The graphics cards tests in Deus Ex 2 were carried out with maximum graphics quality settings, i.e. with enabled Bloom but without forced full-screen anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering.

Just like in Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness the graphics cards on ATI chips took the lead.

Overclocked RADEON 9800 PRO made it the winner in this benchmark and the modified and overclocked RADEON 9800 SE demonstrated more than twofold performance growth. When these cards are working as it, i.e. at their nominal frequencies, they yield significantly to RADEON 9600 XT.